Perryman: “We should not let anyone stop the American people from speaking and peaceful protest. It is righteous and it is the foundation of our democracy.”
Perryman: “In the way our democracy is supposed to function, law enforcement is usually at protest in order to enable people to peacefully protest. Now the president has a different idea, and the president and his allies want to escalate things.”
Washington, D.C. – Today, Democracy Forward President & CEO Skye Perryman joined MSNBC’s Anna Cabrera Reports to discuss President Trump’s dangerous decision to deploy the National Guard against the American people. The National Guard has not been deployed against the wishes of a state’s sitting governor since President Lyndon Johnson used them to protect peaceful civil rights marchers in 1965.
Key Perryman Excerpts:
- On the American people’s First Amendment right to peacefully protest: “We should not let anyone stop the American people from speaking and peaceful protest. It is righteous and it is the foundation of our democracy. I’ve been encouraged by so many people from across the political spectrum and from, frankly, across backgrounds. Veterans, service members, individuals who are in their community, all saying, we are not going to allow this president and this administration to escalate what is peaceful protesting. And so I think that’s what we really want to make sure people remember, and that they do have rights under their Constitution, and that there are lawyers, including lawyers for the state of California, that are going to be in court to defend the ability of people to use their voices peacefully in this time.”
- On the Trump-Vance administration attempting to deter peaceful protest: “The decision to arrest and detain leaders of peaceful protest is certainly something that this administration is trying to do, because they want to deter the American people from protesting. They want to deter people from organizing. And so, you know, what we need to make sure everyone is doing is that they understand their rights, that there are lawyers that will be there to defend their rights, and that they are not allowing this administration to escalate a situation, that they are not giving in to movements that this administration, frankly, would like to see. This administration would like protests to become violent because they want to be able to distract, and they want to be able to keep people’s voices from being heard. And I think that there’s a lot of encouraging things that we’ve seen people from all parts of society saying, this isn’t who we are in America.”
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Democracy Forward is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org.